Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Encryption program obstructs prosecution

|
|
 
  
Published: Feb. 11, 2008 at 12:11 PM

NEW YORK, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- An inexpensive encryption program called Pretty Good Privacy is hampering the U.S. government from prosecuting a Canadian man on child pornography charges.

U.S. Magistrate Jerome Niedermeier has ruled forcing Sebastien Boucher to reveal his computer password would violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, ABC News reports.

Agents arrested Boucher at the Vermont border in December 2006 after they saw file names on his laptop computer that appeared to indicate pornography, including one labeled "2-year-old being raped during diaper change."

ABC says for more than a year federal authorities have tried and failed to crack the PC version of Pretty Good Privacy which is available for less than $200.

"PGP is full-disk encryption, which means the entire disk is encrypted and the only way in is to know the password, " says Charles Miller, a former employee of the National Security Agency.

A Secret Service agency testified at a court hearing in the Boucher case that "the only way to get access without the password is to use an automated system, which repeatedly guesses passwords," and that could take years.

It appears the government's only option is to appeal Niedermeier's ruling, ABC says.

Topics: Charles Miller
© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 27
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego wins Finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee
View Caption
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego, California watches confetti rain down as she wins the two-day Scripps National Spelling Bee championship, May 31, 2012, in National Harbor, Maryland. Nandipati successfully spelled the word .* guetapens *, meaning to lure or ambush. UPI/Mike Theiler
fark
If your neighbors ask if you and your wife are into swapping and suggest having a swapping party...
It's a lie
The hot new baffling non sequitur: Marrying yourself, complete with vows and ceremony. Subby is...
Hutt robbery "cowardly." Oh, so I suppose hiring intergalactic bounty hunters is the paragon of...
Across America, more and more cities are trying to regulate garage sales. In other news, some people...
Bank robber caught hiding during a game of duct, duct, goose